Stephanie Bell is a versatile and experienced flautist, and has played 2nd flute and piccolo in the Victoria Symphony since 2017. She is an active performer of contemporary and classical music on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, as well as a music educator and private flute teacher.
Along with clarinetist Liam Hockley, she is a founding member of Duo 1010, which strives to expand the repertoire of experimental music for flute and clarinet. Duo 1010 were proud to form part of the ensemble in residence for Simon Fraser University’s music composition program in the 2018/19 academic year. The ensemble received a BC Arts Council grant in 2020 to mount an ambitious project, Darkness becomes LIGHT!, which consisted of excerpts from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s LICHT cycle.
Stephanie has performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony, the Kamloops Symphony, as well as with the New York-based Poulenc Trio on their 2016 West Coast tour. Before beginning her professional career in Victoria, Stephanie was a member of many professional training orchestras, including the National Academy Orchestra under Boris Brott (2011, 2013), Orchestre de la Francophonie (2012, 2016), the Orford Academy Orchestra (2014), and the Debut Orchestra and American Youth Symphony in Los Angeles (2014-2016). Her strong interest in orchestral performance began in the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy, under the baton of John Gomez. She was a member of the UBC Contemporary Players ensemble and USC Thornton School of Music’s EDGE ensemble, and a resident guest artist with both the Young Musicians’ Foundation and LA Phil Young Composer programs in Los Angeles. She was a prize winner at the 2015 Stockhausen Concerts and Courses in Kürten, Germany, and was selected to perform at the 2017 Courses with Duo 1010.
As well as performing, Stephanie has a commitment to her community. She participates in many outreach programs through the Victoria Symphony, bringing music education and literacy to schools throughout Greater Victoria. She participated as a teacher in the El-Sistema affiliated Orkidstra program in Ottawa, assisting founder and music director Tina Fedeski. Stephanie also set up a music program in Accra, Ghana during her time volunteering with the Osu Children’s Library Fund in 2009. While residing in Los Angeles, Stephanie was a substitute flute teacher with the Esparanza Azteca children’s music program.
Stephanie completed her Masters in Flute Performance at the University of Southern California with James Walker, former principal flute of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2016), and earned her Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance and Music Scholarship at the University of British Columbia (2014) with Brenda Fedoruk, Principal flute of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. While studying at USC, Stephanie pursued further piccolo studies with Sarah Jackson of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Stephanie is grateful to her teachers James Walker, Sarah Jackson, Brenda Fedoruk, Camille Churchfield, Jean Guy Brault, and Peggy Campbell, and strives to emulate their methods in her own private teaching.
-August 2020
A shortened bio is available upon request.
Stephanie Bell 